More my students are studying because they are unemployed and Do not know anything other than studying

I think two are complementary to each other. We need education for work and work to enhance our education. Work can be a part of education and vise verse.

Dear Mostafa,

Your question is not clear. Please specify!

I think one should first study in order to be able effectively and rightly to work. Without knowledge you can perform but simple physical work .

Not a degree but the knowledge is important!

I think that both are important in the sense of good life; however, most graduate students prefer work to gain money rather than continuing study not to spend money!

More my students are studying because they are unemployed and Do not know anything other than studying

It depends on financial condition. If you are required to support your family, then certainly work is important, education can later be completed according to your and your family's aspirations. As there is no age barrier for getting education or learning. If you are not urgently required to provide your family, it is the best to complete your education to the level you have aspired or your family would have liked.

Graduate-level education i.e. Masters Degree (maybe even Ph.D) represents an effort, a willingness, to pursue a study. While that may be a subjective statement the message is consistent. Education and work compliment each other -if the work (or occupation) is related to (the) education. If an occupation is not (professionally) related to an education then it is only a job. They need to be related for both to be effective or complimentary.       

Studying is work, some times very hard work. So I understood your question, if young people shall study instead of beeing unemployed.

My opinion is, it´s better than sitting around without any occupation, especially because sucessfull studies improve the chances to get a satisfying job later on.

Dear Mostafa,

Your degree holder students study because their old knowledge is not suitable for getting work. This is not always the mistake of the students. Often there are serious troubles in the economical structure of some countries. Generally, main aim of economy is getting more and more money for capitalists and politicians. The human welfare is but secondary or tertiary objective.

This is really a weird question.  What is more important in which sense?  For an individual?  For the society?  For the scientific community?  For the economy?

Additional explanation (or hint): "More my students are studying because they are unemployed and do not know anything other than studying" doesn't help to clarify the cause.  Word "more" implies quantity rather than importance.  I am not sure if there is a general way to correlate quantity and importance.

You want surely to provoke a bit. Many jobs of today need a lot of years of study. To take an easy example, the jobs related to the computer science. There is no contradiction between studying and working. Not at all.

Education (which is work) cannot be in a contest with paid work so as we say this is better than that. If education does not lead to work automatically, then it is better for the unlucky person to not sit idle but to go for higher education if possible. May be after this phase, the door will be widely open to get a decent  job.

The goal is quality life, which can be achieved partly by high income, that comes from job/work, that arises from good education.

They are interconnected in a precedence sequence.

They are both important, in a precedent direction.

Dear Dr. Mostafa,

I got to read very interesting answers from many experienced people in the field.  

I think its a very subjective question and everyone will have different answers to it. Like you mentioned some of the students are studying because they don't get any-work. However, I have a bunch of  friends  who went back to academics even when they were working in a very good post in one of the biggest biotech company of the world. Their purpose to go for higher studies was to widen their knowledge and not to restrict it to a particular domain . Study is work and to work effectively you need to study .

I have also left my job after working for 3 years as a Scientist in Biocon and now planning to move to US for my PhD.  It doesn't mean that I want to go for higher studies because of lack of work but because I have planned it this way.

Cheers

Jitendra

I believe this issue will get different answers and approaches , in strict dependance to the regional differences of our civilized World.

In Portugal,  the System of basic and Secondary statal Education still leads our students to University  a bit unprepared in cultural terms. When I teach Anatomy to first year medical students, I often notice that they are still unprepared in terms of basic education and general culture to proceed with their medical career, 

In this sense, my answer to your question, is that from the point of view of a Medical career, both hard work and education are fundamental.

(thank you, for an interesting issue)

What the society and family expect from the younger generation also play an important role. My home country tries to copy experience from USA and creates a lot of higher education programs in a few years because every single family believe its offspring is the best of the best. The problem is whether the country really need that many grad students with limited opportunity to be a professor. One of my nursing staff, in USA, told me that her sister has gotten 4 master degrees but refuse to form a family or to find a job. Yes, studing can be seen as a kind of work but what is the purpose to obtain a higher education? Another friend told me that his grad student cried to him saying he never really wants to become a PhD but his father and older brother are all successful PhD that is the only reason why he enter the program. I am not able to get my PhD since my family refrained me from getting one. But, I still study so that I can resolve problems I am facing with my benchwork. I believe in study to solve my work related problem but work to provide good life for my family. I do not see any good reason for one is more important than the other.  

Interesting question Mostafa! Not sure it can be answered to satisfaction. Without education one cannot get a good job and without a job one cannot survive. But history showed us that the exceptionally smart (Bill Gates, and alike) need no education to succeed as long as they are not dependent on others to hire them. No one would hire any of these smart entrepreneurs as employees since their social skills are lacking and that may be while they never finished their education but still succeeded in their fields.

The experience they show us though is not typical. In the real world for real people this model will fail. In that case I would only be able to rank in importance in terms of what is important but not what is more important in the general term. 

They both are needed (some times in an overlapping manner and other times disjointedly) endeavors of humans based on conditions of the individual. If a person decides or unable to further educate self in traditional schooling systems, then work is the only option to survive and flourish. There are many people in the world who do live good by being in this category.  

This category includes those who developed technical know how at home and become creative to produce a product that is marketable and make lots of money from there -they already create their own jobs not only for them but for others even for university trained professionals, included in this list as Angela mentioned, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zackergerg and others. The other group in this category are those who could not continue learning and who are not creative either should some how need to get a  type of job to survive.

The third types are the ones who want to study further for either to benefit themselves better of to contribute knowledge to better society, but needed to support their education, or because it is part of the training, then they have to work at the same time while they are learning - a necessity act to accomplish a bigger dream. 

The last category is the ultimate and best hoped kind of work people need after they finish their education, the very essence of their training in the first place, to get a dream job and make a good living and contribute to society.  

Education is more important!  Just think of this: you can't go to work if you can't walk, right?  So you first have to learn to walk.  Hence, education is more important - by far!!!

Education  means not possesing a degree. It is nothing but observation. Work means  put it into a reality or practicality.  Hence both are equally important.   

Both are correlated.

Working Education

I really enjoyed the reading of experienced people. Thank you all for sharing your views. I my opinion Education and Work both are interdependent. When you work you full fill the destiny of education where your knowledge plays a crucial role in your success. If you mere work with out reading updates of your field you can not catch up your successive generations. Your working area, thinking becomes narrower. Vice versa mere reading can not complete the education with out practical experience, you will miss the chance of encountering practical problems. Social, economic issues are ruling the most of the peoples carrier option than their preference and more stress at work reducing the peoples' gist for studies.

Favorite or not the subject in question is weather to work or acquire more education. I have asked this question to myself many a thousand times and it always brought me back to where I am now(working). It is merely a thought process, if you have developed the skills to read, write and judge then you have what it takes to be an educated person. Nevertheless it is important to acquire some set of skills like art, science, mathematics, computers etc. which will get you employed in the said field. I would say the best bet would be to know who you are and what you are good at. Then master your skills in what you are good at, perfection is what earns the fruit. Needless to say but I must say it encapsulates every tiny detail of your profession. In my brother's words " Driving is not only sitting behind the wheel and pushing on the accelerator and brakes and changing gears. If your car breaks down in the middle of the road you should have the knowledge to fix it there and then and make it drivable again." This is what it takes to be a perfectionist. Work as much your heart desires and your body can take. Learn as much as your mind can assimilate and does not make you think you are superior than other population.

Dear Mostafa,

Although both are important but for survival Work is more important. Consider two examples: 

1. In a job interview as a fresher, your education and marks (grades) are seen because you haven't really worked. This is the reason final year students pass out and join as Trainees often at some what similar salaries. However, as time passes, the kind of work you did, the skills you learnt and the application of your knowledge (attained through education and later on by reading journals or related resources) helps you to stand out. In many cases, I have seen that students who are average in studies often stand out when they start working and become successful. So, education, work, environment (chance of exposure to study in good institutes, home environment), IQ etc are important factors that help a student become successful.

2. People in ancient world created such beautiful monuments e.g. Taj Mahal, Pyramids of Giza, Great Wall of China without formal education. No wonder they would have worked under the guidance of someone who was an expert but this expertise was because of work and not education. 

In nutshell, both are needed but any education without exposure to practical environment (Internships) helps to build profile, confidence and new learning of skills. 

Best

Manpreet

For  me, teaching is helpful to my spiritual, physical and emotional well-being. Teaching is work, but I do less well if i am only studying.

I returned to graduate school after a 7 year hiatus from college in 2000 to do a Phd.  I had already taught  2/3rds of the previous decade and half of the previous decade at both high school and college levels.  To my shock, when I arrived to do a TA-ship, I was told that "I would not have to teach, but would only do photocopying, minimal research, and some translation for doctors in the department."  Of all the years I have had doing graduate work--not teaching was the hardest for me as it invigorates me.  What is worse, I earned the worst grades of my graduate career.

I would have rather taught than be left with a feeling that I was up to worthless or unappreciated activity and studying.

Acquiring knowledge only isn't sufficient. We need to impart it as well. The former can be considered as Education (Input) and the latter as Work (Output).

The best scenario would be to balance both.

The two should not be mutually exclusive.  Education is a lifelong activity/requirement. Only the proportion should vary depending on the stage of one's professional stage in life.

Both studying and work are important and cannot be seperated because if you didn't study well, you will face alot of difficulties at work and you may not practice properly.

Observe top people in society, they do not have basic degree or qualification. They have got ability of understanding new concepts of life  from their difficulties, learning lessons from their experience, grasping things from their maturity, perfection or excellence in their work, focusing or aiming attention towards their goal or target    

An educated or  knowledgeable person is always associated with friends of ' why, when, what, and and how in order to conquer this world.

Hence work and education are parallel lines.  

work is definitely more important. because you learn a lot at work. and then you can study something related to your work to get promotion at work and apply what you learn.

No, not working, learning is the beginning. If you don´t have the chance to learn, you have no chance to change your future development. Learn so much as possible!

I think work and education must to be  togather beacuase education is similar body and work is part of it.

I think  at first education is important  and then work is important.

Hi

I think work and work experience is more important now than education